Another Weekend, Another Hike - Jirisan's Unbong (운봉) –Inwol (인월) Trail

This weekend David and I explored Mount Jirisan. Jirisan has many different hiking trails. We chose to walk the Unbong (운봉) –Inwol (인월) Trail (Distance: 9.4 km, Time: around four hours) The trail was easier than we thought as it was very flat. It was well sign posted with red arrows and there was a well defined path.

At the beginning of the trail the majority of the scenery consisted of farmers fields on either side of the trail. We stopped by a river to have our picnic lunch. After this we came to Bijul Folk Village. There was no entrance fee. This was a short but sweet stop. The grounds has nice toilets and cute traditional Korean huts.

After walking over a mountain we came to a forest park and here we went for a swim in a river. It was pretty cold but very refreshing.

One hour earlier than expected we arrived at Inwol Village. Here there were many minbaks. A minbak is a traditional Korean home-stay. We had plenty of choice. The one place we asked at was full but the owners were very friendly and welcoming. They rang their friend and we stayed at his minbak instead. It cost 30,000 won. The man was very friendly and his home was very cute.

We explored the main area of Inwol. It was very small and quaint. We found a little independent restaurant to have our dinner. It was amazing, very delicious! After dinner we said hello to a cow and some goats and ate an ice cream on a pagoda. There was nothing else much to do except go back to our minbak and rest. We had a shower in the nice facilities, watched TV and went to bed.

The next morning we woke up, said bye to our minbak and started our trail in reverse. This time we followed the black arrows. The walk back took us even less time than the day before. We completed the trail in two and a half hours. We explored the village of Unbong which was just as small as Inwol but very cute. We ate some lunch at another independent restaurant. It looked like a kitchen in someone’s home, it was very welcoming. This food was also very nice and very cheap. Our entire meals costing 9,000 won.

We really enjoyed this trail it was very easy and very relaxing, definitely compared to our eleven hour hike last week! Next time we will probably choose a different section of the Jirisan walking trail. I am sure it will be just as nice.